𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐄𝐑 , steve harrington ⁽ ¹ ⁾

21; trust

SAR WAS STANDING IN NANCY WHEELER'S KITCHEN. Her mother seemed to be out at the moment with her husband and Nancy's baby sister, so she was standing at the kitchen counter. The microwave beeped and Sar reached down to retrieve the hot chocolate. It warmed her cold hands.

Nancy's room was upstairs, and so Sar walked up the steps. She wondered briefly where Mike was. Probably out with his friends looking for the gate — those little shits. Sar thought about going after them for a moment, but then she was at the top of the stairs and she could hear Nancy's loud sniffles. She'd keep her mind open, she thought. That way she could help them if they needed it. Sar approached Nance, who was sitting on the bed with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders, next to Jonathan. "Hey," she whispered. The cup of hot cocoa was cupped in her hands.

Nancy looked up, giving her a weak smile. She reached up to take the mug. "Thank you," she murmured. Sar just gave her a nod with a small smile. Jonathan had his arms around Nancy's shoulders. Sar's eyes turned to the open window behind them. She found herself furrowing her eyebrows. Sar skirted around Nancy's bed and looked out the window. A group of teenagers were walking to a parked car across the road. She could hardly see them in the darkness of the night. She swore one of them shot a glance back at the house. Sar slid the blinds downwards and blocked the moonlight outside.

She sat down on the bed beside Nancy and adjusted the blanket around the girl's shoulders. She reached up an arm to put around her. The two weren't friends — they were practically strangers — but the girl had been through enough that Sar thought she'd need all the comfort she could get. The girl looked over at her. "You were right," Nancy whispered to her. "About Will and Barb. Jonathan's mom said Will was alive. She was talking about this monster. Turns out it's all true." Her smile was pained.

Sar placed a hand on Nancy's knee. "Hey, we'll find them." There was hope in her eyes as she nodded slowly.

"So you think they're in there?"

Sar looked down. "That's the thing. I know Will's alive because I talked to him."

Jonathan's head shot up. "You what?"

Both of them were looking at her with wide eyes, eyebrows raised. Jonathan looked hopeful. "I mean... I talked to him in my mind. Telepathically?" she lowered her eyebrows and then raised them again. Now they just looked confused. "Look..." She was getting tired of explaining this to people (yet somehow she thought she'd have to do this many more times). "I'm a mind-reader, telepath, walk through dreams. That kind of thing. I was raised an experiment in Hawkins Lab?" Sar watched as Nancy and Jonathan exchanged looks. "You know it would be much easier if people just believed me."

Nancy glanced back at her. "Uh..."

Sar rolled her eyes. "Just trust me, okay? Is it seriously weirder than what you just went through?" Both teenagers opened their mouths to say something but she cut them off. "I can hear things, around the world—in that world. I heard Will. He's trapped in there, hiding from that... thing." She turned her head back towards them. "I've been living with Steve for the past week."

"Steve?" Nancy said. Her eyebrows were raised.

"Yeah," Sar said, nodding. She turned to Jonathan. "And... how else would I know that you're a photographer, and your dad left when you were little, and you and Will have wanted to go to NYU until you were like six, and how your favourite song together was 'Should I Stay or Should I Go' by The Clash? He told me all of that." Jonathan looked down in thought. "Otherwise, how would I know these things? I don't even know you!" She was pointing her hand at him.

Nancy furrowed her eyebrows. "Okay, prove it. What am I thinking?"

With Nancy's permission, she slipped herself into the shaking girl's mind. Nancy was terrified—understandably so—the fear was like a vine coiling around her cohesive thoughts. All she could think was Monster, monster, monster, I was going to die, it was going to kill me ... repeating like a merry-go-round, over and over again. Sar wanted to reach a hand out and hold it over Nancy's trembling, cold ones.

Instead Sar curved her eyebrows. "Well, you're thinking about that monster in the Upside Down — the other world, thing — naturally, and about how Barb went missing... and about how you saw that thing behind Steve's house..." She furrowed her eyebrows. "You saw that thing behind Steve's house?"

She was opening her mouth. "I— I..."

"Look. Believe me, or don't believe me if you want. But I heard your brother," she was turned to Jonathan, "he's in there, and he's in danger. He needs our help."

Jonathan was shaking his head. "But, I don't understand..."

"Just... just trust me. Why would I be lying about this?" She pulled up her sleeve. "Look, here. This number... it's the number of experiment I was. A brand." She was shaking her head at them. "I'm only telling you this because you can help me find him. And we need to find him soon. Or that thing is going to get him." Her voice was desperate now. She'd only been talking to the kid for a few days but she already cared about him. She wasn't going to let him die in there. The more people she had on board with this, the more dangerous it became for her, but also the more chance they had to find Will.

"And the lab... were you in there voluntarily?" Nancy was asking.

"What?" Sar was shaking her head at them. "No. No. They took me as a child. Wiped my memories..." She swallowed. "Forced us to do things, hurt us when they didn't. That or isolation..." She was blinking quickly. "I'd never go there voluntarily. They took me from my family." She pulled her sleeve back down now to cover the small tattoo.

"So you talked to Will. What did he say to you? Is he alright?" Jonathan was practically leaning over Nancy with concern, eyebrows lowered.

Sar made a face and draped part of the blanket over her own shoulders, so both her and Nancy were beneath it. "He's not hurt. But he's not safe. He's trapped there by that monster. That's why he can't escape, and why I haven't gotten to him yet. Plus... teleporting portals."

Jonathan was jolting his leg. "But... how is he holding up?"

"He's better now that I'm talking to him. Now that he has someone to talk to, and now that he knows I'm going to get him out of there. And I can also sense when the monster is there, so I can help him escape. He knows we're coming for him."

Nancy looked over. "Have you talked to Barbara?" she asked, dipping her chin.

Sar shook her head. "I haven't heard her. But... we don't know how this hearing into the other world works. I hear Will, and I heard you guys, but, maybe it's only sometimes. Only in specific areas?" She was pursing her lips.

Nancy was giving her this look, her lips pulled in. "How— how are you so calm?" she asked, tripping over her words. She tucked the blanket around her front. "I mean, you said you've seen it before?"

Sar made a face, eyebrows lowered and mouth pursed. "Let me tell you, I have seen much more horrifying things than that thing." Her nose was twitching. She had her eyes focused on the blanket draping on the floor. Nancy looked up at that, raising her head in slow movements. She was giving Sar that look that she hated so much—that look of pity. She didn't say anything, and neither did Jonathan. Sar clenched her hands in the blanket. "I'll find Barbara for you," she said. "And Will. We'll find them."

•°•☆•°•

SHIT CHAPTER SORRYYYYYY. UGH the wording and the dialogue of everything was so shitty, I'm so sorry! I promise next chapter is so much BETTER